PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RAVENSER ODDMOVIEMAKER.COM SPRING 2020 37Producer Graham Swon,
best known for directing
The World Is Full of Secrets
and producing films for
directors such as
Matías Piñeiro and
Ricky D’Ambrose, says
a good producer does
everything a film needs
—while maintaining
some distance
BY GRAHAM SWON
N THE EVER BROADENING horizons of low/micro/no-budget film production, the
exact role and function of the producer is often unclear, even to those working in that role.
I’ve noticed that many in the independent filmmaking community have a rather vague idea
of the actual role of a producer, beyond assisting in securing financing or general organiza-
tion. The job description is rather flexible, as it requires you to rapidly identify any given
problems and find viable solutions, and is regularly diluted by being torn between the many
alternative roles that may need to be fulfilled—i.e., people you really should have on set but
you cannot afford to actually hire—such as production manager, line producer, assistant
director, production assistant, festival coordinator, publicist, and caterer. All of these can be
part of the producer’s role, but they can also obscure the producer’s true and most essential
work: to act as a physical and emotional caretaker for the film.
I’ve produced six (extraordinarily, painfully) low-budget features and about as many
shorts at this point, and I still consider myself largely a neophyte. Every production feels
just as confusing and overwhelming as the first. Anxiety increases as the awareness of
possible catastrophes grows. False confidence in the months before production usually
evaporates into cold sweats and the panicked feeling that “there is no way on earth this
will ever work and we will all die and/or go to prison” in the 48 hours before shooting
starts. I know enough at this point to realize that every production will feel like starting
over from scratch. Whether you are about to start on your first production or your fifteenth,
I hope the thoughts below can give you the false sense of security necessary to get yourself
to the point where, well, you can’t really turn back.1
AN OVERSEER
The goal of the producer and the goal of
the director are not identical. The direc-
tor should strive to make each individual
moment, scene, and shot interesting and
meaningful, and thus assemble into a good
and meaningful whole. The producer,
meanwhile, must strive to have a finished
and complete film. While these roles are
usually harmonious, in the course of any
production they will eventually come into
opposition. Most commonly this happens
when the production does not have the time
or money to spare on continuing to improve
a given shot, or to execute an idea in a par-
ticular way. While the director is always “in
charge,” the producer should have absolute
veto power, and directors should trust pro-
ducers when they use it.
You have to trust your gut on this. On the
one occasion I can think of that I felt we
should radically change direction during a
shoot and I backed down due to pressure
from the director, the result was an extreme
loss of time and money.2
A THERAPIST
The producer is not primarily a creativeI
force, although creativity and imagination
are critical in the role. Nor, as is often as-
sumed, is the producer a purely managerial
figure. Instead, a producer’s primary func-
tion is therapeutic. There will come times
when directors doubt themselves, doubt the
process, and feel crushed under pressure
and torn apart by conflicting needs. They
cannot valuably express these issues on-set,
and the problems cannot be fully under-
stood by someone outside of the process.
The producer, then, must be able to identify
and give the requisite treatment.3
A DOULA
If a director is in the act of giving
birth, and the actors are in the process of
being born, the producer is something like
a midwife or a doula; someone to ease the
difficulty of the process for the others. Suf-
fice it to say, the process should not be as
emotionally fraught for the producer as it is
for everyone else. If the producer becomes
overly entwined with the process, he or she
will lose the ability to mediate, to guide, to
soothe. The ideal producer is empathetic,
engaged, and adequately distant. Every
director will have different needs andALEXA SHAE NIZIAK AS EMILY IN
THE WORLD IS FULL OF SECRETS